Research: Friday the 13th still a mystery
Sidewalk cracks and black cats … The superstitious best stay home tomorrow.
But if you were born on a Friday the 13th, like a certain local editor, tomorrow is your lucky day. That’s all in good fun — associating luck with any date does seem irrational.
Unless you happen to be a numerologist, sorceress, or biblical scholar. Or perhaps a French monk.
Once upon a time, ancient civilizations thought Fridays had cosmic importance. They held festivals, worshipped and prayed to deities on Fridays. They spread legends about major events which allegedly occurred on Fridays. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, they believed Freya — a once-favored goddess of love whose name also translates as Friday — was banished to the mountains as a witch.
And yes, she was banished on a Friday.
Now about the number 13. If it makes you nervous, that’s called tridecaphobia — fear of the number 13. Laugh if you will, but even building owners have been known to take this phobia seriously, sometimes skipping from floor 12 to 14. In some cities you’ll find streets do the same.
In numerology, 13 is a number for completion or endings, not necessarily bad ones, but apprehensive nonetheless.
Old stories describe primitive beliefs that each Friday, 12 witches (not the good kind) plus the devil would meet to plot evil deeds against mankind. Twelve plus one equals 13, on a Friday. Ba da bing.
In the Bible, the number 12 is repeatedly associated with good things, which is probably why the next number, poor thing, got stuck with a bad rap. According to Timeanddate.com, the temptation of Adam, the great flood, and Jesus’ death were also believed by the religiously superstitious to have occurred on Fridays.
Finally, we come to that dark day in France.
The infamous mass torture and killing of thousands of Knight Templar monks, based on false accusations of immoral deeds and ordered by King Philip the Fair, allegedly happened on Friday, Oct. 13. Et voila, the date was cursed.
Paraskevidekatria-phobics — people who fear Friday the 13th — may have other explanations. While scientists emphatically deny there’s any truth to the superstition, that may be less important than human psychology. Several published studies, including in the December 1993 British Journal of Medicine and the 2002 American Journal of Psychiatry, linked nervousness and apprehension about the date to higher accident and death rates. The doctors suggested, rather tongue-in-cheek, that perceptions of luck affected behavior, reaction timing, and judgment.
Guess we make our own luck.
“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.” — John Lennon
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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.